Footnotes

The ms. from which this is taken is Cod. Add. 17,158, fol. 30 vers. Mar Jacob, bishop of Sarug, or Batnæ, was one of the most learned and celebrated among all the Syriac writers. He was born a.d. 452, made bishop of Sarug a.d. 519, and died a.d. 521. He was the author of several liturgical works, epistles, and sermons, and, amongst these, of numerous metrical homilies, of which two are given here. Assemani enumerates no less than 231. Ephraem Syrus also wrote a similar homily on Habib, Shamuna, and Guria.

The metre of the original in this and the following homily consists of twelve syllables, and six dissyllabic feet; but whether they were read as iambs ortroches, or as both, appears to depend on the nature of the Syriac accentuation, which is still an unsettled question. Hoffmann, in his slight notice of the subject (Gram. Syr., § 13), merely says: “Scimus, poësin Syriacam non quantitatis sed accentus tantum rationem habere, versusque suos syllabarum numero metiri. Quâ tamen poëseos Syriacæ conditione varietas morarum in pronuntiandis vocalibus observandarum non tollitur.”—Tr.

Cureton has “prosperous,” which Dr. Payne Smith condemns, remarking: “*** I find generally used for the Gk. ἄριστος, and once or twice for κράτιστος . It answers more frequently to strenuus = courageous, heroic.”—Tr.

A corruption of the word σαμψηρά is used here. It is said by Josephus, Antiq., xx. 2, 3, to have been the name given by the Assyrians to some kind of sword. Suidas mentions it as a barbarian word for σπάθη, a broadsword. Curetons “scimetar” would be preferable, as being somewhat more distinctive, if it appeared that a scimetar could have two edges.—Tr.

The temptation was strong to render ***, “became unleavened” (or, “tasteless”), a sense apparently required by the decided figure employed and by the language of the next couplet, where “insipid ” corresponds to “salt.” The word *** (= ἄζυμον), moreover, if not the Arabic *** (to which Schaaf, though it does not appear on what authority, assigns the meaning “sine fermento massam subegit”), seems to point in the same direction. Dr. Payne Smith, however, is not aware of any instance of the proposed meaning: he says, “My examples make *** = ἐκλείπω, to fail.”—Tr.